OKC Rail Plan: Questions & Crime

By Jonathan Small

In multiple states, failing large-scale public transit projects have produced demands for state-taxpayer-funded bailouts. This has happened in California, New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, to name just a few.

That’s why all Oklahomans should be concerned about Oklahoma City metro officials’ efforts to create a $1.8 billion commuter rail system covering 39 miles from Edmond to Oklahoma City to Norman.

Proponents claim passenger rail will boost economic development in the metro, but similar rail services have augmented the worst problems of urban settings—homelessness and crime—and spread them throughout surrounding areas.

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Space Academy & Freedom in Space

By Newt Gingrich

There were two fascinating developments this week in the American effort to carry freedom into space.

President Donald J. Trump announced that the United States would be creating a Space Academy modeled on West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy. The new academy will provide a steady stream of competent leaders working to get America into space. It will also provide a center of intellectual excellence for thinking through the challenges of a space-based economy and humans living permanently beyond earth — from low earth orbit to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Furthermore, by making the new academy military and civilian, it will be a little like blending the Merchant Marine Academy and the Naval Academy.

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Nicaragua’s Democracy Scam

By David Arnett

Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega’s captive National Assembly eroded the fiction of Nicaragua’s democracy again September 1, rewriting the nation’s constitution to entrench their illegitimate dynasty and indefinitely deprive Nicaraguans of free and fair elections.

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Tulsa Should Use AI

By Gleb Tsipursky, PhD

Tulsa is spending real effort on a problem many growing regions share: finding and developing skilled workers. The Tulsa Regional Chamber has been building a talent pipeline for high-demand fields including engineering, accounting and industrial machinery maintenance. Tulsa Tech is also helping employers design CareerTech apprenticeships around the skills they actually need.

AI changes the design problem. Companies can now automate more of the routine work that once gave new employees their first exposure to a profession. That raises productivity, but it also removes practice unless leaders deliberately replace it with better practice.

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What Detroit’s Comeback Teaches

By David Arnett

For generations, American workers have built the cars, technologies, businesses, and industries that helped make the United States the most dynamic economy in the world.

Now, the nature of that work is changing. Artificial intelligence and advanced technology are transforming the workplace, even as skilled tradespeople, technicians, and manufacturers remain essential to America’s strength and competitiveness.

As Labor Day approaches, Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice sits down with General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra for a timely conversation about American workers, innovation, and what it will take to keep our workforce strong in the decades ahead.

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